The murdered village, the lie of the “Ukrainians”, the criminal who was shot 44 years later …

March 22, 1943, at 10 ranks, occupied Belarusian territory. Captain Hans Wölke, a German security police officer, was escorted by two trucks in a car to the airport near Minsk. To the so-called according tohe would fly to Germany to spend his vacation.

Although Völke’s rank is small, he is not a small man. In the sprint competitions at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, 16 m 20 cm won a gold medal. Adolf Hitler is a favorite of the country’s leadership, including. The victory of the Nazi regime’s apologist Leni Riefenstall in the film “Olympia”.

Gafila is about 50 km from Minskac encounters women who cut. They are asked if they have seen a guerrilla nearby. Women respond negatively. Continuing on their way, the invaders came under guerrilla fire a few hundred meters later. The attack was repulsed without major casualties, killing only three people, but one of them was Hans Völke.

My Olympic champion and The assassination of Hitler’s beloved infuriated the invaders. They returned to the fifty women they had cut down. Twenty-six of the women, residents of the village of Kozyri, were shot dead and the others were taken to the town of Plechenitsy.

The incident took place on the Logoysk-Pleshenitsy road parallel to the village of Khatyn. The attacking guerrillas retreated to the village of Khatin and Thinking that the villagers were helping them, the Germans set out in the evening. The Dirlevanger Battalion, known for its German bloodthirstiness, was accompanied by the 118th Guards Battalion, made up of Soviet citizens who sided with them.

Tabor was one of the locals who agreed to cooperate with the Germans in the summer of 1942 and It was made up of captured soldiers of the Red Army. The personnel of the unit commanded by German Major Erich Kerner consisted mainly of Ukrainians, as well as Russians and Belarusians.

The battalion’s chief of staff, Grigory Vasyura, was in charge of the woman’s crime. Contrary to German beliefs, residents were unaware of what had happened in the morning. Nevertheless, the village was besieged and they forcibly gathered the population in a former collective farm warehouse.

Straw was laid around the wooden building, gasoline spilled and fired. Fire and the doors opened as a result of pressure from the people inside. But people trying to escape were shot with automatic weapons. Thus, those who survived the fire died from bullets.

As a result of the crime, 149 people were killed, including 75 children. Only 8 women survived. The two residents were not in the village that day. Five of the other six were children. Although two of them were in the warehouse, they survived. A 13-year-old boy hid in a potato pot, but two German soldiers saw him but did not capture him. The boy’s 9-year-old sister hid in the basement and survived. Finally, a 12-year-old boy was rescued by his mother, who sent him to a neighboring village as soon as he saw the Germans.

Only one of the elders in Khatin that day, 56-year-old blacksmith Joseph Kaminski, survived. He fainted in the barn and regained consciousness at night. The blacksmith finds his still-breathing son among the corpses, but his son soon dies in his arms.

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From the war 20 years later, Khatin was chosen as the symbol of the destroyed Belarusian villages. 1966 JanuaryA decision was made to establish the Khatin memorial complex in the Logoysk district.

The main monument of the complex, which was inaugurated on July 5, 1969, was a prototype for a father holding his son’s body in his arms.

Always behind the commemoration of the murder of a woman political it rang. In fact, he is German and it was not the worst incident in Belarus committed by their local minions. Among the 5,295 Belarusian villages where the entire population was killed, in whole or in part, the number of victims was much higher than in Khatyn.

For example, 705 civilians were killed in Bork (Minsk region), 1528 in Rositsa, 510 in Yedi, 1758 in Ala, 1800 in Bork (Mogilev region) and 702 in Britsalovich. This is the number of villages where the number of victims is many times higher than in Khatyn. There are more villages with relatively little difference.

But the choice of Khati as a symbol of the destroyed Belarusian villages was not without reason. So. that, In the spring of 1940, the USSR shot dead Polish prisoners of war in the village of Katyn in Russia’s Smolensk region. This issue was no less discussed in the West than the German atrocities after the Second World War. The reason for choosing Khatyn as a symbol was the similarity of the name with Katyn. Even now social It is often the case that these two crimes are mistakenly identified in networks.

Moreover, Khatin’s truth was not fully disclosed. It is alleged that the crime was committed only by the Germans, who passed in silence over the participation of Soviet citizens who sided with them. Of course, the existence of those who sided with the Germans during the war was not denied in the USSR. However, it cannot be admitted that a symbolic tragedy was committed by its own citizens more than by the occupiers.

Lady re in modern times political has become an object of speculation. In 2014 Russia Khatyn’s crime after the deterioration of relations between Ukraine and Ukraine nationalists, who claim that it was committed by “banderaists” and Many materials written by Russians – articles, videos on YouTube, social sharing occurred in networks.

However, the 188th Battalion involved in the crime had nothing to do with the OUN organization. As I said earlier, the battalion is one of the locals who agreed to cooperate with the Germans and was made up of prisoners of war. Moreover, not only Ukrainians, but also Russians and consisted of Belarusians.

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The fate of the perpetrators of the murder was different. Some died during the war, some were able to find refuge abroad, and some were exposed and punished by the courts. The most amazing of the latter was the story of Gregory Vasyura.

Vasyura was a senior lieutenant in the Soviet army when the war broke out. Six days later he was captured by the Germans and agreed to cooperate with them. Although this cooperation became known to the Soviet authorities after the war, Khatin and His involvement in other crimes remained secret. That’s it according to He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1952, but was released only three years later as a result of an amnesty.

After his release Kyiv He lived in the village of Velikaya Dimerka in the province. Just because those around you are captured according to was able to convince that he was unjustly punished. He joined the Communist Party and became deputy director of the state farm. He often met with young people “fighting way” He even graduated once Kyiv became an honorary cadet of the military communication school.

Gradually embarrassed, Vasyura loses his reserve. In 1985, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the victory, war veterans were awarded the Order of the Patriotic War. Seeing that he was not rewarded, Vasyura could not stand this “injustice” and complained to his superiors. The investigation initiated on the basis of the appeal reveals the true identity of the complainant.

Gregory Vasyura was arrested in November 1986 and sentenced to death on December 26. Appeals and was shot in October 1987 after his pardon application was rejected.